A Sensitive Education
Francesca Todde
Départ pour l’image
English
Hardback
Second edition of 500 – Edition 283/500
112 pages
155 x 215 mm
2021
ISBN 9788894462227
With A Sensitive Education the photographer Francesca Todde explores, through the figure of bird educator Tristan Plot, the possibilities of empathy between different natural species. The narrative, far from being a naturalist documentation, is rather focused on the emotional sphere and sensitivity of birds and humans. The photographic research develops in resonance with the delicacy of this wordless dialogue.
Tristan is a bird educator specialist in soft methods. He prepares birds for participation in theatre and dance performances or film documentaries. He also works on the new concept of ornitotherapy and mediation through the animal, creating contact between birds and people with disabilities, the elderly, prisoners, in order to promote new sensations and create a deep reconciliation between birds and humans.
When he was a child, in the forest behind his parents’ house in the Touraine, Tristan noticed that, if he remained still for a long time, the animals came out of the vegetation and it was possible to observe them. Even today, this practice of slow approach, respecting the rhythm of nature, remains essential to his educational method. Since he studied ecology, biology and ethology at the university, he developed an educational technique at the intersection of imprinting, traditional training and positive training. His method is a set of observation and predisposition of mind in harmony with the environment, according to the sensitivity of the other and in relation to expression and behavior codes which are different from the human ones. Tristan, through the intuition of animality as something delicate, subtle and minimal, defines the relationship with birds as an exclusive bond able to reconcile the rhythm of the species with the individual one. His research is based on the understanding of the sensitivity of birds and aims to recover that ability, which got lost over the course of evolution, of perceiving the minimal variations and micro movements that are the expressive world of animals.
(source: https://departpourlimage.com/A-Sensitive-Education-Francesca-Todde)
About the Artist
Francesca Todde is a photographer, designer and publisher. She focuses mainly on personal long-term projects, with her practice considering both the editorial aspect and diffusion in printed form. Her research focuses on the invisible elements of relationships, sometimes crossing stories between humans and animals. In 2018, she co-founded the publishing house Départ Pour l’Image, with the artist Luca Reffo.
francescatodde.com
(source: https://francescatodde.com/Information)
About the publisher
Départ Pour l’Image is an independent publishing house and art book design studio based in Milan, founded in 2018 by photographer Francesca Todde and artist Luca Reffo. Its name comes from the inscription stamped on the film of some French films useful to indicate their verso for reel-to-reel assembly and cinema projection. The editorial line focuses on the possibilities of seeing by means of the image, on the border between photography and contemporary art. The publications, produced in close collaboration with the artists, arise from ongoing projects and are in editions of between 50 and 1500 copies. Occasionally, Départ Pour L’Image also curates exhibitions.
departpourlimage.com
(source: https://departpourlimage.com/About-Us)
